


Contagion

by 3tequilafloor



Series: Cruelty and Kindness [2]
Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: Fever, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 05:03:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7421011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3tequilafloor/pseuds/3tequilafloor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><br/>Kagari is a danger to himself and everyone around him, fine, but it doesn't make him any less curious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contagion

The great thing about _Jojo's Adventures_ aside from the wicked cool superpowers is that the series went on pretty much forever. When he's bored (and he's always bored) he can pick any random arc and there will be things he's forgotten about or didn't notice the first time. The second great thing about it, aside from the wicked cool superpowers, is that practically everyone has read it or at least has a passing familiarity with it. They don't acknowledge it, exactly, but he can tell. 

It's pretty pathetic when being served an under cooked meal is cause for excitement, but that's just the state of world affairs, right? There was a time when he would've avoided it, dealt with the lecture for wasting food or the even more annoying cutback on rations for a while as they tried to calculate his recommended calories more precisely that would inevitably follow. Time was, he preferred the uncomfortable feeling of going to bed hungry to the crippling pain of abdominal cramps from food poisoning. But he's not a kid anymore, not really. If he were out in the world he'd be starting high school this year, so he's basically, practically an adult. It's worth risking something serious to get out of his cell for a while, even if he'll be too sick to really enjoy it that much. At least it'll break up the monotony. 

That's why he does it, and what he keeps reminding himself of when he's hooked up to an IV line from fluid loss, cuffed with the long straps to a bed that's panic distance from a toilet, because no one wants to deal with gastrointestinal emergencies when there are actually sick people to be looked after. He's already yanked the IV tube out twice by mistake when he's made a desperate dive over the bed rails to reach the toilet in time, which is fine because sure it hurts like a mother, but someone always has to come in and poke another hole in him. They have to fix his heart monitors too when he peels those off, but it's only worth it if he can make it look like an accident. They'd know if it wasn't, too, because there's not even a privacy curtain, just a glass wall with that mesh inside that prevents the psychos from smashing it apart and throwing themselves off the building. 

Thing is, the people who work in this place know all the tricks. When he sets the spoon on the tray table far enough over to bump it to the floor, they let him figure out how to eat his soup without it. When he tries to engage them in conversation, they ignore him steadfastly. If he asks about his condition he might get a brief answer, but he couldn't really care less about that, so he usually tries other things. Movies that he's seen (there's not many, but it's something anyway,) or football scores from games that are long since over, since he can't really keep up with current league statistics. _Jojo's_ is the one that usually gets that spark of recognition from people. Sure, they pretend he's not talking to them just the same, but he sees the flash in their eyes, sees that little spark of interest. 

Making human connections isn't impossible in the wards, but it's inadvisable. He's tried it and it only ended in bitterness and grief. It's better and safer to keep to himself when it comes to that. Medical is like the free square on the board. They don't know him aside from the embossing on his chart that tells them he's dangerous and should be kept away from others, kept in sight at all times, but never acknowledged. More importantly, they're here because there's something screwed up about them, too. No one just volunteers to work with criminals and sick people and worst of all, sick criminals. They get that assignment for a reason. There's some kind of cracks under the surface there, and if he just keeps chipping away at them, he might get a peek. He might get a glimpse of what it's like to be just on the edge of that line, the one that separates the refuse like him from the respectable, productive society outside. He might get to see what it is that makes them different. 

So, he chips. It's tireless work, and it never goes over well. But it's worth it on the rare occasions that he makes them drop those masks even for just a fraction of a second. He likes to see people shaken out of their comfort zones, likes to see them feel that brief connection to him and then fight with themselves internally about it. The disgust they feel to consider him as a fellow being for a moment is infuriating, but oh so rewarding. He hopes it screws with them long after they leave. 

He's getting better at telling which ones he can upset. The new ones, the weaker ones. Often the younger ones. They're not as hardened and empty as the ones who have been around longer. Those ones he especially likes, because until their superiors correct them they often chat right back to him at first. They chat about school maybe, and then realize a moment later that he has no idea what they mean. Or they'll tell him something like "ah, my subway pass caused me trouble this morning, I almost couldn't get through the turnstile! It happens on the first of every month, why can't the system for that be corrected, right?"

Then he'll say, just to watch their face fall, "what's a subway?" It's always good for a laugh. It makes them stop, startle, think. Sometimes their breath will hitch and they'll become frightened, remembering just why he's cuffed to the bed that way. It's a bit of harmless fun, that's all. So he eats the under cooked food when he gets it, carefully not grimacing or reacting in any way that might raise suspicion. He endures the sweating and shaking and cramping and the absolute mess it makes of his body. What's more, he licks everything within reach when he thinks he won't be seen doing it, hoping to catch something else nasty and stay out of his stupid cell for a while longer. 

If he catches anything the incubation period is longer than 48 hours, because he's simply pumped full of electrolytes and anti-emetics and discharged with orders to avoid solid foods for the next week. Which is fine by him, because he doesn't even want to think about food at the moment and it means that next week they'll give him fattier rations to bring him back up to his minimum recommended weight after what he's undoubtedly lost through one orifice or another over the past few days. There's the added bonus that when he's put back into his cell he's so weak and exhausted from the brutal evacuation of his insides over the past few days that he falls asleep as soon as he hits his bunk and hardly has the energy to move for the next few days. There's no time to be bored when you're hardly even conscious. The little time he does have to think it over is spent with the thrill that they'll give him extra time in the gym to make up for his lean mass loss, as soon as he's feeling up to it. It'll be a while before he's really bored out of his mind again. 

A few days later, he gets one last added bonus when he wakes up drenched in sweat, with a sore throat. Lucky! He caught something after all. Of course he keeps it quiet, carefully suppressing the coughs that try to wrack his body. If he can just let it stew a little longer before someone notices, his fever might break the mark and he'll get a second vacation to look forward to. Even if this time, he's a little disappointed to realize, he probably won't be able to talk. 

Well, that's fine. Whatever. He'll just have to play charades with them, then. It'll be a whole new level to try and master.

**Author's Note:**

> To those unfamiliar with the series: It's a future world where the potential to commit wrong acts can be measured. Potential is enough to lock someone up as a danger to society. Kagari has been in custody since the age of 5 as a potential criminal


End file.
